A penalty of over Rs 54 crore was slapped by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on three airlines namely Jet Airways, InterGlobe Aviation, and SpiceJet on Wednesday. The penalty was imposed by the Competition Commission on the three airlines for carrying out unfair practices related to fixing fuel surcharge on cargo transport, PTI reported. Jet Airways was slapped with a fine of Rs 39.81 crore, while both InterGlobe Aviation and SpiceJet were asked to pay Rs 9.45 crore and Rs 5.10 crore, respectively, in form of a penalty by the CCI, PTI reported. The watchdog has strictly asked the airlines to ‘cease and desist’ from carrying out such unfair and anti-competitive practices in future, the report said. Competition Commission of India has also said that Jet Airways, InterGlobe Aviation, and SpiceJet have been penalised for concerted action in fixing and revising FSC.
In nearly three years, Competition Commission of India has issued an order on the same complaint for the second time. The penalties amount to 3% of the average turnover that each airline made via levy of Fuel Surcharge on the cargo volume during the three years namely 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. This time, the penalty imposed by Competition Commission of India is much lower than Rs 257 crore what was imposed back in 2015 on these three air carriers.
The shares of SpiceJet were trading at Rs 127.10 up 2.46 percent on NSE at the time of reporting. Jet Airways stocks were trading at Rs up 0.42 percent and shares of InterGlobe Aviation were trading at Rs 1,278.50 up 0.04 percent on NSE at the time of reporting.
Meanwhile, national carrier Air India will introduce thrice-a-week flight from Delhi to Tel Aviv (Israel) from March 22, PTI had reported on Tuesday.
Air India had already planned to begin with such a route but the plan couldn’t be implemented as some nations didn’t agree to allow usage of their airspaces for air flights to Israel, PTI reported.